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Dear
Anthony, 
As many of you know, the NYS
Senate has been embroiled in an
internal power struggle which has
interrupted most legislative
action. We have waited to
release this report in the hope
that the Senate would have solved
its problems and that the AAP
could provide a full report of its
legislative activities.
Recognizing that there is little
hope of a timely solution to the
impasse, this report will give you
the latest update of what the
District has been doing over the
last several months.
Henry Schaeffer, MD, FAAP
Chair, AAP District II, New York
State
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Legislative
Victory! Flu Shots in the NICU
We are very pleased to announce that
after much hard work, we have been
able to secure passage of our
legislation requiring all hospitals
with a NICU to offer parents and
caregivers of NICU infants,
immunization against flu on site.
We have been working on this
legislation for several years, and
this year, with some hard
negotiations with HANYS (Hospital
Association of New York State), we
were able to secure passage.
We are now waiting for the Governor
to sign the bill and to begin to
help the SDOH and the HANYS with
implementation. This is not only a
significant legislative victory for
the District it also has the
potential to assure a healthy start
for some of the most vulnerable
infants in our practices.
Congratulations to all who worked so
hard, for so long to secure passage
of this important legislation.
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Children's
Mental Health Services in Primary
Care
The District has been in serious
discussion with the New York State
Office of Mental Health and the
State Department of Health on how to
best provide training and support
for those pediatricians who want to
offer a level of children's mental
health services in the primary care
setting. These discussions are
anticipated to produce a pilot
project. Several possible programs
models will be discussed, including
one offering interested
pediatricians training and support
from a panel of child psychiatrists.
We will also explore the feasibility
of creating and supporting regional
panels to provide telepsychiatry
consultations and case management
work for specific patients.
The discussion will absolutely
include ways to include specific
payments to cover the time both in
office and in consultation to make
the approach viable. Both
Managed Care in the public and
private sectors, and Fee for Service
in the private and public sectors
are being invited to join the
discussion to help design
appropriate payment for the service
from various payer groups.
Discussions are just beginning. We
will provide regular updates as
progress is made.
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New
York State Medical Home
The District has been very active
in the SDOH discussions on
creation and implementation of a
New York State Medical Home in the
Medicaid, Child Health Plus and
Family Health Plus programs.
The District representatives have
two main issues they continue to
raise. One is that children
are not just small adults, and
therefore a children's Medical
Home is somewhat different from
one for adults. We are working on
gaining state acceptance of a
Bright Futures NY model. Also,
we are adamant that the Medical
Home discussion not be allowed to
devolve into only a money saving
approach to care for high end,
chronically ill adults, those with
heart disease, diabetes and
obesity complications. Our
second issue is that it makes no
sense to establish a Children's
Medical Home only for those
children who are covered by the
public or subsidized health
insurance. It is more
reasonable to set a statewide
standard of care, Bright Futures
NY, and provide payment to support
that level of care for all
children. Any other approach would
produce more complications and an
inequity in care across various
coverage options. We are
also waiting to better understand
how any legislation and coverage
requirements included in the
federal health care reform
initiative will impact on New
York's current children's health
insurance options and future plans
for expansion of eligibility and
benefits.
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 NYS
Immunization Coalition
The District's Immunization
Coalition had its June meeting in
New York City. The
Immunization Bureau of the New
York City Department of Health and
Mental Hygiene hosted the meeting
in their offices at
125 Worth St. The meeting was well
attended by representatives of a
broad array of organizations who
are working with AAP on
immunization issues. The group
reviewed the legislative work of
the Coalition this session.
All groups were pleased with the
work they were able to do together
to stop anti-immunization
legislation, including an
expansion of the "medical
exemption" and a bill to
create an easily obtainable
"philosophic exemption."
Groups representing child care and
teachers joined this year in
submitting Memos of Opposition for
anti-immunization legislation and
Memos of Support for legislation
the AAP and the Coalition
supported.
The coalition also discussed
recent media coverage of
immunization issues. There
was considerable focus on the
recent Newsweek magazine coverage
of Oprah Winfrey's off the wall
health advice. Her hosting
of anti-vaccine advocates like
Jenny McCarthy was part of the
coverage. In general, the
coverage in Newsweek and other
general media during the last
quarter has been more positive
about vaccines. Major media
have covered outbreaks of
preventable disease from an
objective perspective. And media
seemed to be quoting more science
and less "opinion" in
their pieces.
We also reviewed the first design
draft of our bookmark for parents.
All groups were very pleased with
the design. We will be
meeting with the groups
individually to discuss
dissemination in various sites
that serve children and families.
The bookmarks will also be
available to all members who may
wish to have them available in
their offices, clinics or other
service sites.
We also discussed reaching out to
additional service groups like
Rotary, Lions, Elks, etc. Staff
will explore the feasibility of
such an effort.
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Additional District
Activities
Other District activities during
this period include:
- continued negotiations on the
legislation creating a
Breastfeeding Bill of Rights;
- ongoing involvement in the
state's efforts to expand and
enhance its efforts to ensure that
all age appropriate children are
tested, and if necessary, treated
for lead poisoning;
- presentation of the Western NY
Vaccine Summit;
- continued work on building the
strength and capacity of the
Chapter based Pediatric Councils;
- ongoing work to follow and
provide input to our
representatives on federal health
reform initiatives, including the
implementation of a soda and sugar
tax;
- continued work with state
government staff on school
nutrition issues and work on other
components of the state's
anti-obesity agenda.
Again, our success depends on the hard
work of our members. The hours
you spend volunteering to advocate for
issues important to children's health
and well being and to improve the
practice of pediatrics is what gives
the AAP its strong voice for children. |
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